The Times-Picayune archiveBill Lavender, the New Orleans editor who led the UNO Press to national prominence, has lost his job amid state-mandated budget cuts at the University of New Orleans.

I am a third-year graduate student in UNO's Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA program, and I am utterly dismayed at the university's decision to eliminate Bill Lavender as program director.

Why has Bill Lavender been terminated as director of a program so successful, both academically and financially? The UNO Low-Residency program consistently produces graduates who go on to great success as writers, teachers and critics, a fact that can be laid squarely at the feet of Bill Lavender's leadership and vision.

Vague statements about budget cuts have been bandied about, yet most of us enrolled are a guaranteed income stream: out-of-state students, paying full out-of-state tuition to the institution, hefty price tags for what has up until now been the most dynamic, exciting, innovative, challenging and inspiring low-residency program in the country. This turn of events makes me feel as if we were never seen as anything more than cash-cow dupes, virtual open wallets whose educational experience is apparently disposable.

I would call upon President Peter Fos and Interim Provost Louis V. Paradise to please do the right thing. Please renew my faith in the University of New Orleans. Please reinstate Bill Lavender as director of our Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA program.